Renowned DMC champion DJ Blakey has dropped a definitive guide on YouTube, cutting through the noise to help beginner DJs streamline their music discovery.
While subscription-based streaming services offer vast, immediate libraries, Blakey warns against relying on them entirely. They are perfectly viable for venues with rock-solid connectivity, but a sudden Wi-Fi drop can leave a performance stranded. True reliability requires ownership. For purchasing tracks, Blakey highlights Amazon Music and Beatport, alongside record pools for exclusive downloadable edits, and Bandcamp for uncovering independent releases.
SoundCloud remains an essential ecosystem for tracking down rarities. By leveraging the platform’s recommendation algorithms—specifically hunting through related tracks attached to your favourites—DJs can uncover obscure gems that keep dancefloors guessing.
On Bandcamp, Blakey champions a bottom-up approach: find an artist you love, follow their profile, and scroll to the base of the page to mine the “if you like” recommendation engine.
The strategy shifts on Beatport. Rather than browsing the generic charts, Blakey targets specific genre pages, selects a standout track, and uses it to bridge into the artist’s and label’s back catalogues. The goal isn’t just accumulating the latest releases; it is about digging deep into older, overlooked deep-cuts that modern dancefloors have forgotten.
Ultimately, Blakey advises quality over scale, urging new DJs to establish a foundational core of 100 tracks they absolutely love before trying to build a massive library. Watch the tutorial on YouTube.